The beginning
Raised close to the work
I grew up Mormon and homeschooled on a raw-milk dairy farm in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. That upbringing taught me things I still value: tell the truth, work hard, care for people, and make something useful.
Next batchA note from Braden
Enough can be a business plan.
Maintaim is my attempt to make a useful product, tell the whole truth about it, and build a business that serves a life instead of consuming one.
The heart of it
I know how marketing can manufacture pressure. I would rather earn trust slowly—and let a good product speak in a human voice.
The path here
Nothing about this started in a boardroom.
Age 14
Bees, wood, and patience
I kept bees and built top-bar hives. A hive teaches you quickly that good systems are living systems: you pay attention, disturb less than you need to, and never mistake control for care.
College
An idea about enough
The pricing model came first. What if a business charged enough to cover the real work, then trusted people to decide whether and how to say thank you? No pressure. No performance of scarcity.
Kansas City
Learning the machinery
I became the marketing and operations manager for a multimillion-dollar law firm. I learned the tactics, systems, and levers that make organizations grow—and learned that growth by itself was not a life I wanted to chase.
Now
A product, a family, an experiment
A receding hairline gave the model a product. Becoming a father gave it urgency. I want to make something genuinely good while still being present as a husband, a dad, and a person who enjoys his days.
How the model works
The price covers the whole, honest cost.
Ingredients, packaging, overhead, and labor all count. Labor matters because I want to make every batch carefully and still have time to be a father, husband, and happy person whether anyone gives another dollar or not.
If Maintaim means more to someone, they can say thank you however they want. A gift makes life easier. A candid tester note makes the formula better. A kind review can mean the world. None of it is owed.
Come along slowly